Department of Health and Social Care

Coronavirus: Ethnic Groups

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is collating data on the ethnicity of people that have died from covid-19.

Jo Churchill: NHS England publishes deaths from COVID-19 reported in hospital settings on their website, which includes a breakdown by ethnicity. More information can be found at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/The Office for National Statistics has published a provisional analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 by ethnicity for England and Wales for all deaths involving COVID-19 that occurred between 2 March and 15 April 2020. More information can be found at the following link:https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/coronaviruscovid19relateddeathsbyethnicgroupenglandandwales/2march2020to15may2020Public Health England (PHE) publishes weekly surveillance reports on GOV.UK with confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths broken down by ethnicity can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/weekly-covid-19-surveillance-report-published#historyPHE undertook a rapid review to better understand how COVID-19 may be having an impact on different ethnic groups. PHE published its epidemiological report on 2 June and the Minister for Equalities will be taking forward further work following this report which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-review-of-disparities-in-risks-and-outcomes

Coronavirus: Ethnic Groups

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the reasons why covid-19 disproportionately affects people from BAME communities; and what steps he is taking to mitigate those effects.

Jo Churchill: The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch MP) is reviewing the findings from Public Health England’s reports to better understand the drivers behind the disparities and the relationships between the different risk factors. Her work will help us to improve understanding of the virus and who it affects so we can build on the existing action we are taking to tackle health inequalities. This includes our childhood obesity plan, NHS health checks, our tobacco control plan and diabetes prevention programme.In addition, the NHS Long Term Plan commits all major national programmes and every local area across England to set out specific measurable goals and mechanisms by which they will contribute to narrowing health inequalities over the next five and ten years.

Protective Clothing: Delivery Services

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what deliveries of personal protective equipment have arrived in the UK since 1 January 2020, by date of delivery; and what equipment was contained within each of those deliveries.

Jo Churchill: Since 25 February 2020 the Department has distributed over 2.7 billion personal protective equipment (PPE) items for use by health and social care services in England.These deliveries have included masks (types II, IIR, FFP2, FFP3), eye protectors, gloves, gowns, coveralls and aprons.Though the global market remains challenging, we have procured over 31 billion items of PPE from United Kingdom manufacturers and overseas suppliers.

Coronavirus

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment the Government has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on socio-economic status and recorded deaths from covid-19.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 12 May 2020



Public Health England (PHE) published a rapid review exploring the impact of COVID-19 across different population groups on 2 June. Factors examined included ethnicity, deprivation, age, sex and obesity. The analyses within the review looked at confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths related to COVID-19, where this data is available. The report is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-review-of-disparities-in-risks-and-outcomes

Ports: Disease Control

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of UK ports of entry have had (a) Public Health England, (b) Public Health Wales, (c) Public Health Scotland and (d) Public Health Northern Ireland staff permanently located at those ports alongside UK Border Force since 1 January 2020; and how many staff from those organisations were located at each of those ports.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 02 June 2020



Public Health England (PHE) has staff permanently located at London Heathrow. Exact numbers vary with demand. PHE’s Heathrow based Health Control Unit provides all English ports with 24 hours a day, seven days a week public health support, risk assessments and advice. PHE also works with local National Health Services and other first responders to provide local health support when needed.Public health is a devolved issue and it is up to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to decided how, what and where resources are deployed at ports of entry, which will vary depending on demand.

Coronavirus: Disease Control

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that measures to ease the lockdown restrictions due to the covid-19 outbreak do not increase the level of infection among at risk groups identified in the Public Health England report, Disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19, published in June 2020.

Jo Churchill: The UK’s response to Covid-19 is are underpinned by scientific advice informed by a number of infectious disease models. Each of these is overseen by world-leading academic and public health institutions, who come together in the UK Government’s Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M). These experts have published a research paper that explores the multiple factors that place people more at risk of serious illness if they catch coronavirus.We are using this research to develop a model that reflects a wider range of factors such as demographics, and lifestyle alongside long-term health conditions, to better understand cumulative risk of serious illness for individuals if they catch COVID-19.At each review point, impacts on at-risk groups have been carefully considered, in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty requirement for public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between different people when carrying out their activities.The Government will continue to review the measures, assessing them to ensure that they continue to be necessary and proportionate based on available scientific evidence, which includes up to date data.

HIV Infection and Hepatitis: Homelessness

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with (a) local authorities and (b) the Greater London Authority on HIV and HCV testing for homeless people during the covid-19 outbreak; and what plans he has to work with those bodies on that testing in the future.

Jo Churchill: No discussions have been had with local authorities or the Greater London Authority on HIV and HCV testing for homeless people during the covid-19 outbreak.Local authorities and the Greater London Authority are responsible for assessing local needs and commissioning services for homeless people.PHE also provides a range of data to local authorities which monitors national and local hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus testing and treatment activity and can inform local commissioning of services during the COVID-19 outbreak and into recovery, including for homeless people.

Contraceptives: Coronavirus

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has in place to ensure that women are able to access their contraception of choice during the covid-19 outbreak.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 15 June 2020



Sexual and reproductive health services are open during the pandemic though some are temporarily reducing their face-to-face appointments and may only be able to see emergency or urgent cases in person. This is to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection. The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare have published clinical advice to support ongoing provision of effective contraception which health professionals should work to can be found at the following linkl:https://www.fsrh.org/documents/fsrh-ceu-clinical-advice-to-support-provision-of-effective/.Women need to be able to continue to access contraception during the pandemic and in line with these guidelines, where services should ensure that there is clear, up to date signposting for patients and partner services as to what local contraceptive services are currently available, how these can be accessed, and where available, to national online services.

Dentistry: Sick Pay

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of sick pay support for NHS dental nurses when self-isolating during the covid-19 outbreak.

Jo Churchill: Staff on National Health Service terms and conditions of service (Agenda for Change), including NHS dental nurses, will receive full pay if they are told to self-isolate, meaning they will be paid the same as if they had come to work. This ensures NHS staff can follow infection control procedures without worrying about their finances.For dental nurses, who are directly employed by dental practices with an NHS contract and are therefore providing an element of NHS care, terms and conditions will be dictated by the agreement they have in place with their employer, the NHS dental contract holder.

British Association of Private Dentistry: Coronavirus

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he (a) has had and (b) is planning to have with representatives of the British Association of Private Dentistry to discuss their experience of the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Churchill: The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has had no direct discussions with representatives of the British Association of Private Dentistry and none are currently planned.

Coronavirus: Death

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to Answer on 9 June 2020 to Question 43753 on Death, what assessment his Department has made of the implications of the high number of excess deaths during the covid-19 outbreak on his policy response to that outbreak.

Jo Churchill: The Office for National Statistics published a report on 5 June 2020 providing an analysis of death registrations not involving COVID-19. Their report found that the largest increases in non-COVID-19 deaths compared to the five-year average are seen in deaths due to "dementia and Alzheimer disease" and "symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions" (the latter mostly indicating old age and frailty). Overall, they reported 5,404 excess deaths due to dementia and Alzheimer disease and 1,567 excess deaths due to "symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions" in the period from week ending 13 March to week ending 1 May. This comprises two thirds of total non-COVID-19 excess deaths in this period. The report is available at the following link:https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/analysisofdeathregistrationsnotinvolvingcoronaviruscovid19englandandwales28december2019to1may2020/technicalannex

Dental Services: Coronavirus

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many urgent dental care hubs have been set up during the covid-19 lockdown period.

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many urgent dental care hubs are (a) open and (b) fully operational as at 6 July 2020.

Jo Churchill: NHS England and NHS Improvement announced on 28 May that National Health Service dentistry outside urgent care centres would begin to gradually resume from 8 June with the aim of increasing levels of service as fast as is compatible with maximising safety. At the height of the pandemic NHS England and NHS Improvement set up urgent dental care centres (UDCs) to provide clinically necessary urgent treatment to patients. The over 600 UDCs remain open to ensure that dental treatment needed urgently can be accessed while practices make sure their own expansion of services is done as safely as possible.

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists: Correspondence

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to reply to the letter from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, dated 22 April 2020, on aerosol-generating procedures undertaken by speech and language therapists.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 13 July 2020



I replied to the letter from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists on 12 August.

Ayanda Capital: Protective Clothing

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the unit for each item of personal protection equipment agreed in the contract with Ayanda Capital.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 13 July 2020



The Contract Award Notice for this contract has been published and can be found at the following link:https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:309303-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0The contract is for personal protective equipment facemasks and the value of the contract is £252,500,000. The Department will publish the contract itself, which will contain further information, on contracts finder in due course.

Ophthalmic Services

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to ensure the provision of sight-saving ophthalmology services to people with (a) eye conditions and (b) eye conditions who are extremely vulnerable and shielding.

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) improve the quality and (b) increase the capacity of ophthalmology services for patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Jo Churchill: NHS England published its ‘Clinical guide for the management of ophthalmology patients during the Coronavirus pandemic’ in March 2020. This guidance sought to ensure that inpatients, outpatients and day case patients were supported during COVID-19 and identified that infection control was vital to how ophthalmology services operate. This guidance is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/03/Specialty-guide-ophthalmology-coronavirus-service-reorg-v1_23-March.pdfThe Royal College of Ophthalmologists has also issued guidance on ‘Reopening and redeveloping ophthalmology services during Covid recovery’ which outlined that adapting surgical and face-to-face outpatient visits to support shielding patients should be considered. This guidance is available at the following link:https://www.rcophth.ac.uk/2020/05/covid-19-update-and-resources-for-ophthalmologists/

Methadone: Prescriptions

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2020 to Question 61461 on Methadone: Prescriptions, what assessment his Department has made of the capacity of prescribers to safely electronically prescribe FP10 MDA opioid substitution therapy in England.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 20 July 2020






An error has been identified in the written answer given on 18 August 2020.The correct answer should have been:

 A recent review by NHS Digital looking at the availability of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in light of the National Health Service’s COVID-19 response, considered that prescribers could not use EPS for FP10 MDA prescriptions. While this review resulted in work being initiated to accelerate technical developments that will support wider use of EPS, EPS for FP10 MDA is a highly complex area which requires significant technological development both centrally and by system vendors.The Government has announced that from Friday 24 July, members of the public must wear a face covering when visiting a shop or supermarket in England. Guidance on how to wear and remove a face covering was published online on 14 July. In addition, the Government is running a major proactive communications campaign on face coverings to alert the public where they are now required to wear face coverings and educate the public on how to correctly wear one. Legitimate reasons for not wearing a mask include if they are travelling with or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading to communicate or if they are not able to put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability. People will be able to remove their face covering if speaking with people who rely on lip reading, facial expressions or clear sound to communicate.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 20 July 2020



 A recent review by NHS Digital looking at the availability of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in light of the National Health Service’s COVID-19 response, considered that prescribers could not use EPS for FP10 MDA prescriptions. While this review resulted in work being initiated to accelerate technical developments that will support wider use of EPS, EPS for FP10 MDA is a highly complex area which requires significant technological development both centrally and by system vendors.The Government has announced that from Friday 24 July, members of the public must wear a face covering when visiting a shop or supermarket in England. Guidance on how to wear and remove a face covering was published online on 14 July. In addition, the Government is running a major proactive communications campaign on face coverings to alert the public where they are now required to wear face coverings and educate the public on how to correctly wear one. Legitimate reasons for not wearing a mask include if they are travelling with or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading to communicate or if they are not able to put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability. People will be able to remove their face covering if speaking with people who rely on lip reading, facial expressions or clear sound to communicate.

Cancer: Bury South

Christian Wakeford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will put in place a plan to rebuild cancer services in Bury South to rapidly reduce the treatment backlog and avoid worsening outcomes for people living with cancer.

Christian Wakeford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that cancer treatment is provided in coronavirus-free hubs with the required (a) equipment, (b) covid-19 testing and (c) staff resources in (i) Bury South constituency and (ii) England.

Christian Wakeford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability in Bury South constituency for restored cancer services to deliver personalised cancer care commitments.

Jo Churchill: On 8 June 2020, the National Cancer Director and the National Clinical Director for Cancer issued further guidance to National Health Service cancer services on the second phase of the NHS response to COVID-19 for cancer services. The states that the work for local systems and Cancer Alliances to identify ring-fenced diagnostic and surgical capacity for cancer should now be well advanced, so that referrals, diagnostics and treatment can be brought back to pre-pandemic levels at the earliest opportunity to minimise potential harm, and to reduce the scale of the post-pandemic surge in demand. Cancer Alliances should work with their regional teams to provide these essential services.This includes focussing on reducing the number of over 62-day waiters on cancer pathways, particularly rescheduling diagnostic procedures or treatment for those who have had their care delayed by the pandemic.The NHS is now working on the restoration and recovery of all cancer services. We are encouraging anybody with symptoms that could be indicative of cancer to contact their general practitioner (GP).GPs will continue to refer on to cancer pathways in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance so that patients can be managed appropriately.During the COVID-19 pandemic, all personalised care and support should continue by telephone, video, online or by post if face-to-face appointments and group sessions have not been possible. As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, these interventions will be implemented where appropriate for every person diagnosed with cancer by 2021.

Ovarian Cancer: Diagnosis

Kate Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that people with suspected ovarian cancer receive a timely diagnosis.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 21 July 2020



NHS England is establishing Rapid Diagnostic Centres across the country to bring together the latest diagnostic equipment and expertise. This builds on the Multidisciplinary Diagnostic Centre model, which focussed on diagnosing cancers where patients often present with non-specific symptoms. This is part of the NHS Long Term Plan, which set an ambition to see three quarters of all cancers detected at an early stage by 2028.In September 2019 the Government announced funding of £200 million for new equipment to drive earlier diagnosis of cancer and improve survival. Over 300 diagnostic machines will be funded across the country, replacing outdated equipment with cutting edge technology.

NHS: Staff

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the NHS People Plan.

Helen Whately: Holding answer received on 22 July 2020



We are the NHS: People Plan 2020/21, published on 30 July, sets out actions to support transformation across the whole NHS. It builds on the creativity and drive shown by the NHS workforce in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks to embed those innovations. It focusses on ensuring staff have the mental and physical wellbeing support they need.Further action for 2021/22 and beyond is expected to be set out later in the year, once funding arrangements for future years have been confirmed.

Cancer: Screening

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made in providing genomic testing for cancer patients who could benefit from treatment with histology independent therapies.

Jo Churchill: The first candidate histology independent therapy, larotrectinib, for treating advanced solid tumours with NTRK gene fusions has been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) through the Cancer Drugs Fund, and final appraisal documentation was published by NICE on 21 April 2020. In line with the publication of the final appraisal documentation, NHS England and NHS Improvement put in place genomic testing for NTRK gene fusions, delivered by the NHS Genomics Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). NHS England and NHS Improvement is continuing to work with the GLHs to ramp up the capacity of NTRK gene fusion testing.

Cancer: Health Services

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support NHS England has provided NHS staff in relation to personalised care provided to people with cancer.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan, what progress he has made on the activity Cancer Alliances have undertaken to offer personalised care to people with cancer.

Jo Churchill: Support and information for all cancer patients in England is provided through four key personalised care interventions:- Personalised care and support planning based on holistic needs assessments;- Health and wellbeing information and support (including nutritional advice and psychological support);- End of treatment summaries, that provide symptom management information;- A Cancer Care Review with their general practitioner.During the COVID-19 pandemic, all personalised care and support should continue by telephone, video, online or by post if face-to-face appointments and group sessions have not been possible.As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, these interventions will be implemented where appropriate for every person diagnosed with cancer by 2021. NHS England and NHS Improvement are building up a picture of current provision to help target future work to support rollout.